SK Hynix Engineer Smuggled 4,000 Pages of Secret Docs to Huawei in Shopping Bags
A former SK hynix employee was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined ₩20 million for stealing sensitive semiconductor technology before moving to Huawei. The court found her guilty of violating South Korea’s Industrial Technology Protection Act, citing her printing of thousands of pages of confidential documents containing manufacturing process solutions just before leaving the company. Though the court suspected she intended to leverage the information at Huawei, it imposed a relatively light sentence due to insufficient evidence of actual usage and the lack of demonstrable damage to SK hynix. While SK hynix has strong security protocols, the court noted that the Shanghai office’s security appeared less stringent, potentially contributing to the initial undetected breach.
John Q. Hosedrinker